Acclaimed poet Lex Runciman, Linfield College professor of English since 1992, reflected on teaching and the influence his own instructors have had on his craft in a recent issue of Linfield Magazine.
“I teach because I was taught, taught by Mrs. Shea, who was not a nun; taught by the nun who wept as she told us John Kennedy had been shot; taught by the school librarian who gave permission: I could take out as many books as I wanted, as often as I chose.
“Good teachers taught me to see how enthusiasm, a whole-thinking and whole-hearted and rigorous questioning and finding, could be demonstrated and transferred, transferred to the likes of me, no college in my family and few books on the shelf. I could read Mrs. Dalloway. I could read Beloved and Moby Dick.
Read the full story in Linfield Magazine.
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